Picking up the Pieces Last Leg of the Journey!

[Shark a' Pult]

"So you know Martin do you? The little scamp really gets around these days... he's me brother, yeah. I'd like to imagine we're old enough now where I don't have to always watch out for him though."

When Beth mentioned Martin, a look of happy surprise crossed Aithne's face. Sure enough, her brother did get around quite a bit, so it wasn't rare to meet someone who knew him. But she definitely wasn't expecting anyone like that here.

[How did you know I wasn't a cooking robot? Beep.]

"Yeah, how did you figure that out? Well, I suppose you could see its hands. Not exactly made for cooking. It's broken and we need to access this island to fix it. That's all we want."

"I didn't figure anythin' out, you both just told me. Give 'em enough rope and they'll hang 'emselves, I believe the sayin' goes?" At this she laughed a little to herself, while Kaede just facepalmed. She didn't like this Aithne's methods, mainly because she could already tell she herself would have made the same mistake Connor had. "There's a small problem with what you want though, what with the whole gettin' access to the island part."

"Well, Miss O' Brien. If you really want to help us, could you first explain to us the situation? I'm a bit lost as to why the Marines have cordoned off everything on and around the island. We have urgent business we have to attend to, business that won't be involving or bothering anyone but ourselves and our robotic friend here."

Though she was intent on continuing the conversation with Beth and her robot, hoping to find out what they knew about her brother perhaps, she shifted focus to Snake when he chose to spoke up. She wasn't as interested for lack of a better word in him, but she did recognize him from somewhere, she just couldn't place him yet. Maybe if she found out about him as well, she'd remember.

"Ah well you see that, is a bit of a story there. The boys in white here..." She gestured to the marines nearby, the commander again becoming tense, "...aren't really sure. We know that awhile back some idiot brought outsiders to the place, and soon after that thin's went to hell. Not sure why but suddenly everyone wanted to leave, and normally that wouldn't be much a problem. Except here it is, I'm sure you can understand the reason why we can't just have a mass of people from an advanced island suddenly spread out through the world. That, on top of the evidence that there is some kind of disease... like a plague goin' around, and you should be able to see why we're worried. Hence, nobody in and nobody out, not without clearance. Can't risk breakin' the quarantine."

For the most part Kaede had been trying to make sense of things in her head, trying to concentrate. All that was happening, it was a lot for her to process, and it was something of a personal rule that she never be caught in a situation where she didn't see the whole picture. Thusly, it was quite maddening for her at the moment, but something Aithne said caught her attention. She nearly missed it, but slowly it began to press more and more to the forefront of her focus. Lowering her hands from her head, she opened her eyes and looked up at the others, and then to the woman on the other side of the bars. After she told the basic recent history of the island to the others, a soft smile played across her face in preparation for what she was about to say. Only the most perceptive might notice that it was a decidedly mean-spirited smile, as to others it would just appear to be Aithne's usual warm and endearing demeanor.

"So tell me, is your business really that urgent, knowin' the risks involved? I'm sure there are plenty of... not cooks to fill whatever role you need that machine to? I'm sure it can wait at least, until this whole nasty business blows over. I want to help you. Really, I do, but try to see this from our point of view. Supposin' you give me somethin' to work with, and I'll see what I can do."

Kaede had a feeling she knew a way to get out of this, but she wanted to see how Beth and the others would respond to the situation before she did. Social unrest amid a future island during a plague outbreak sounded like the last place she wanted to be, but it wasn't her decision to make.

[CJ]

"Martin helped save my son's life," Beth smiled genuinely. "I never had a chance to thank him. If you ever see him, please pass it on."

She facefaulted again when Aithne tricked them. It was the simplest way to get information out of someone and they totally fell for it. Snake finally inquired about what was going on. Beth had to admit, she was a bit troubled by what she heard. From what Connor told her about Colyne, it seemed to be a marvelous place. She always thought the future would provide a disease free world. She had assumed the quarantine was a front but apparently it was real.

Beth wondered, could Finnegan and Camellia have been citizens of Colyne? She could only imagine the kind of pain they must have been going through if they were. To not be able to see family or friends would be terribly difficult. Though how many friends could a tea person have?

At Aithne's inquiry, things got rather cold. Tomahawk was the first to speak. Its monotone voice seemed all the more perfect for this dreary situation.

[I'm sorry for lying to you. My name is Connor Anderson and I am a cook but I'm not a robot. My wife and my friends were trying to get me to Seven Gates to replace my body.]

Tomahawk placed its hand to its head, almost as though it was trying to support itself.

[I'm only a brain. That's all that's left of me. I can survive though and can come back when this is all over.]

"Connor, we can't leave," Beth almost begged (she only really begged once in her life). "It's taken us so long to get here."

[No, I'd rather we go back. Solaine, the twins, they need you. Meek needs you. Our son needs you, Beth.]

She recognized whenever he used those words. Connor was running away from the situation. He was right about everything, but at the same time, how were they ever going to get a chance at this again? She looked to Snake, Kaede and even Shroud Demon for help.

Tomahawk stretched out its hand to shake Aithne's.

[Thank you for meeting with us, Aithne. I hope we can be going now. Is there anyway you might be able to contact us once this situation is taken care of?]

"Hold on," Beth interjected. "Before we get too hasty, I have to know something. O'Brien, this person you were talking about, did they enter with the outsiders recently? Do you know who it was?"

She had a suspicion this incident might have had to do with the mysterious person Connor allied himself with in the months they were separated.

[Kyubey]

Camellia stayed quiet while Althne talked to the outsiders. Finnegan did as well, for clearly neither he nor the teacup were important to the conversation in the slightest. Though he was not nearly as notable as a tea girl, he still did try to keep as away from Althne's attention as he could. He was practically devoted to his little corner, and tried his hardest to look as uninterested in the conversation as possible. But in all actuality, he was interested, and he was listening.

And despite being hidden, Camellia was listening as well. She couldn't really not listen, for limitless curiosity was a firm part of her personality that wouldn't go away even with Finnegan's most honest efforts. But she could also be acceptably discreet when it was called for, and she stayed perfectly still and flat, positively the most dull giant cup of tea anyone had ever seen in their lives. However, when the plague and the mysterious outsiders were mentioned, steam began to form once again. Beth or one of the others might have noticed this, and might have been able to deduce that this topic was of particular interest to her. But all of that was completely forgotten when Tomahawk, or rather, Connor, revealed that he wasn't really a robot, totally blowing her mind, and causing the tea to heat up to the point of boiling. While she could stay quiet most of the time, there were some pieces of news that were just too much even for her.

"Wait, what? What? Y--y-you... what? WHAT? WHAAAAAA?"

In a desperate and futile attempt to subdue the loud disturbance, Finnegan very loudly cleared his throat. Camellia settled down, having calmed a little and realized the mistake she had made, and managed to bring herself to a calm simmer.

"Ehm, I must apologize, you see, well, when I'm surprised, my voice, it gets very high pitched and, uh, feminine. It's a condition, understand, and I am so sorry if it bothered you. Please, carry on with your conversation."

Camellia didn't say anything else, but still kept her ears perked, hoping for more to be revealed.

[Kuro]

Shroud Demon had been surprisingly quiet during all of the twists and revelations; at least, all of this stuff about sons and brains was surprising to him. He had been with the others for only a very short while and had never been told or thought to ask about these things. The fact that the nice lady talking to them was an O'Brian didn't mean anything to him and as far as he knew, his friends were trying to go to the sick, fancy city for Konner's important brain transplant. To be a human in a robot's body...was really cool, but he guessed that not being able to feel your son's skin was bad.

It all came to a head when he heard Beth ask Konner to keep going. Keep going. Keep going.

"Wait!"

The bucket-headed crusader stood up dramatically and outstretched his open hand towards the nice O'Brian lady, as if telling her to stop...something. He turned to Konner and got close to him, yelling in his metal not-face as loud and enthusiastically as possible, like most of the time.

"There is no need to give up now, Konner! You are so close to your fabled destination and you would stop?! No! Do not give up! In the words of all that is just and wonderful, do not give up!" He looked up and pointed to the heavens as he finished those words, then brought his finger back down to Konner, stepping back so that he had enough room to point at him with his other hand on his side. "Your son needs you! He needs his daddy and you will not abandon him!" Abandon. Another word he knew how to spell and pronounce perfectly. "Abandon! You will finish this!"

He then jumped around and grabbed the bars, practically bouncing up and down in place as he yelled at the nice O'Brian lady with no anger, just volume and enthusiasm, he was clearly ecstatic. "Miss Nice Pretty Lady! We will gladly go into the fancy city for you! We will venture into its ruined towers, find out the secrets you seek, defeat those who would give the city such pain and suffffuffering, and then restore the great place to its former glory! We accept your quest and will be your heroes and the heroes of the city! So please, let us go in and destroy that which would destroy, help that which would want to be helped, and bring happiness to their lands once again!" The Shroud Demo had posed in a number of dramatic ways as he spoke those inspirational words, ending the thing with one knee in the ground and one hand outstretched towards the wall in front of him. He stayed in this pose for several moments, apparently expecting some sort of reaction or thankful words that screamed in delight for the soon-to-be-coming protection of the fabled city. "Oh, and we can fix Konner once we're in. And we should take M.O.M and the teeeeeaaaaaacup with us for quicker heroism acts and help. That would be very nice, thank you. But, the town's safety and lives of its citizens are what are most important! We will protect their protections that are at stake!" He jumped up and pointed to the heavens once again, his gaze piercing through the ceiling.

[Sprite]

Snake cocked an eyebrow as he listened to Aithne's explanation. He was disliking her more and more by the minute. He didn't like her tone, and all the subtle passive aggressive mannerisms with which she was speaking to them with. She obviously wanted something from them, but was forcing them to propose it.

And then Connor tried to give up.

The Warrior Prince glared at the chef robot, recalling the brief scene in the ship's kitchen where he had damn near broken his fist wailing on the Tomahawk shell. Getting up, Snake made to walk over and knock out the robot chef, or at least knock some sense into him trying when Shroud Demon got up and promptly did all their work for them.

Snickering slightly, Snake gave Aithne the most condescending smile he could conjure up, the look he gave her making it clear he knew just what she was up to.

"Our bucket-headed friend here speaks for all of us. You need something done, we need to get on the island. We can compromise here."

[Shark a' Pult]

[Thank you for meeting with us, Aithne. I hope we can be going now. Is there anyway you might be able to contact us once this situation is taken care of?]

"There's no need to thank me, I'm just doin' me good deed for the day. Anyway, if it really matters to you all that much, then I'll find you and let you know in person once the blockade is lifted."

Understandably, Aithne was reluctant to shake the hand of the robot. From what little she knew of these automatons, it was likely that her hand would be crushed. Or worse, she could be grabbed ahold of and used as a hostage or whatever else. Instead she just nodded to the chef in affirmation.

"Hold on, before we get too hasty, I have to know something. O'Brien, this person you were talking about, did they enter with the outsiders recently? Do you know who it was?"

"Well I tend to only concern meself with the present details, but if I recall it was some idiot in a suit of armor. It wasn't too recent either, probably 'round a year ago. From what I understand, it was bringin' the outsiders in that caused the plague in the first place. Fire Sickness... is what they call it I believe. Terrible stuff, spittin' flames and nearly dyin' from touchin' water."

Aithne had to think back bit from what she knew to be able to at least try to answer Beth. In truth it was as she said; she had come to this place because of the nature of the situation at hand, not because of what had happened in the past to cause it. She could recall knowing all about it at one point, when she first got involved, but now it seemed so unimportant to her goals that she all but forgot it. There was of course the small detail about the person and their relation to the Government, but she didn't feel it was important to divulge.

When Shroud Demon began to act up though, she was all the more glad she hadn't gotten too close to the bars or opted to shake the robots hand. She found the whole display rather amusing, though she wasn't sure if she trusted the bucket-headed fellow. After all, you never trust someone when you can't see their face. Why else would they be concealing their identity unless they had something to hide, as was the case here. Still though, the sheer oddity of the individual got a laugh out of her more than once before he was done.

"Our bucket-headed friend here speaks for all of us. You need something done, we need to get on the island. We can compromise here."

"Funny thin' that, I really don't need somethin' done. I already got everythin' I wanted from you all, so why should I compromise? I'm headed back to my ship to finish what I was doin', and you'll all be headed on your way. Unless you've got some kind of clearance, and royalty doesn't count, then I'm afraid that's that."

To take the bucket head's place was the prince again. To him she maintained the smile, only now it was genuine and not at all mean. She found it funny that he believed there was some kind of bargain going on or could be made, given the position he was in. She'd already told them all she felt like telling them, she'd already gotten from them everything she wanted, and now she'd make good on her word and leave them. Hopefully the marines would make good on their word and let the group go, but then at that point, they wouldn't be her responsibility anyway. She did a small curtsey in preparation to leave, but before she could make her exit there sounded a voice she had not heard yet.

"W-Wait, wait don't go yet! I have them, here!"

"Hmm? What was that?"

It was the girl in the corner who'd been quiet up until that point, and had been hiding something. It was of course what she was hiding that Aithne wanted to see, and so she made it look like she was leaving as to get a reaction out of the girl. As expected it worked perfectly, and there she was up and active and talking, holding what looked like a folder containing some papers. Aithne had a feeling already of what it was, hence why she had been specific about clearance, and now it served to pay off. This was exactly what she was looking for, and taking it from Kaede through the bars, she went through the motions of opening it up and studying it intently although she really wasn't even paying attention. She would more thoroughly analyze it on her own ship, and right now merely put on a show for the marines and commander nearby.

"Well then, this should be quite sufficient. Commander, release them immediately and bring their effects. I'll be takin' charge of the prisoners from here on out." Closing the folder she turned to speak with the navy officer still standing nearby. As seemed to be a habit with him around her, he tensed up, clearly angry but unable to actually do anything or voice his opinion for whatever reason. His men looked to him like there were lobsters crawling out of his ears, and to why he would be taking orders like this from this civilian woman, but unfailingly he did as he was told and obtained the keys to open the cell while sending off a few marines to retrieve the effects of the prisoners. Aithne got out of the way when the commander went to open the cell, the warmest smile towards him you ever did see. "Oh, and bring the tea girl and her butler or whatever he is. They were never any good to begin with, and now they're just takin' up space."

---

After getting them out of the cell, Aithne got the prisoners their effects back and led them to her own ship. It was similar to the submersible the Marine commander had, and indeed they looked to be practically the same design. Only, while his was intended for a small person crew, hers was much bigger. Enough to rival in size the biggest battleship currently in the blockade. There was some question as to where she had been hiding it this whole time, well the answer was simple enough; underwater. When it surfaced she led them aboard, and proceeded towards the island unhindered. Of note that never once, did she give back the folder she had gotten from Kaede. The girl realized it was probably a mistake revealing such delicate material, but she believed there wasn't any other way of getting out of that cell and getting what they needed. If it meant getting Connor his body and his life back, she would happily give up a lot more than just a secret folder, that was for sure.

Eventually the submersible surfaced, well past the blockade and relatively close to the city now. Aithne had parked the vessel there, though if ever asked why, the only answer she offered was that they needed to wait for nightfall.

---

The moon was high as the dinghy pulled towards the future island. It was hard finding a small boat that could accommodate Connor's weight, but eventually the mechanics on her vessel managed something well enough. And so they slowly but quietly closed in on the portion of the island that seemed to link with the water, the blockade visible all around them miles away.

Despite that it was pretty dark out, the view of the island would be much more distinct now to the group traveling towards it. While the hourglass shape was maintained from far away, up closer it was clear to see that a more accurate description would be two colossal mountains with one inverted upside down to seemingly balance upon the other's peak with the top half towering impossibly far above the group. There might have been some question as to how this was possible, but a keen eye would notice a number of huge bridges near the supposed summits of each of the mountains, effectively joining the two. That didn't explain exactly how two objects of their sizes were able to stand atop one another like they were, but it at least gave somewhere to stat.

Or at least it would, if the whole island was listing dangerously to the side. Some of the bridges were clearly out, and as a result the bottom half of the hourglass of the island was hanging rather unevenly and partly into the water, the peaks no longer joined and help up now only by the remaining bridges. The top half too was wonked to the side a bit as well (from the uneven weight put on it by the bottom half), but at least it wasn't hanging in the water.

The closer they got, the more they would also be able to see the fires. Even in the night one could see that though the country was entirely comprised of the hourglass arranged mountains, the city and populace itself lived on them. That is to say, that as though gravity were not a concept, entire available surface of the mountains were occupied with a mass of buildings, merely built upon and jutting off the sides, even partly upside down in the case of the buildings seemingly hanging from the upper inverted mountain. It was unlikely that anyone in the group who had not been to this place before would have seen living conditions as densely packed as this, and there was virtually no place on the island itself that was not occupied with the buildings.

The problem though was that while the top half of the island was well let and all the buildings were plain to see, the bottom half was lit in a different manner. Were it not for what was clearly a great number of raging fires all across the bottom half and the resultant clouds of smoke issuing forth, then the whole bottom half of the island would appear completely dark for indeed, for those who knew of such things the power was clearly out. Only the fires served as some light source, but from the distance they were, the group would be unable to tell if these were set specifically for lighting purposes or for some other reason.

All the while despite the closer they were getting to this strange island and it's seemingly impossible design, Aithne seemed relatively nonplussed and just steered the small dinghy. In truth she had spent the last few months here so she had grown used to the sight, and this would not be the first time either that she had actually landed on the island. It was always done in secret like this however.

[CJ]

Tomahawk seemed a bit frazzled. Even though it had no face, it unstable stance suggested it was uncomfortable with Shroud Demon and Snake's actions.

[My son hates me,] Tomahawk muttered softly under Shroud Demon's speech. Snake might have heard it, but Beth definitely did. A sour look came on her face and she looked away in ignorance.

The robot and former entrepreneur tensed up when Aithne divulged the true nature of the plague. Beth tried her hardest not to look at Tomahawk or give any sort of clue away that she knew what might have been going on.

"Hey, what do you know?" Beth asked as Kaede succeeded in getting them out. "Kaede's done it again. I don't know what was in those papers but eh, who cares right? We're on our way. Yee!"

Beth laughed in her carelessness. Tomahawk looked toward her for a bit, perhaps noting she had been smiling rather often lately.

---

Beth looked out onto the island. She had only known it from Connor's descriptions shortly after he returned him. In the darkness, it looked like a place of horrors. How were they sure the top half wouldn't come careening down as soon as they stepped foot on the place? Better yet, what if they had to go up to the top half?

And just what was Connor thinking about all this? If the two were alone, they'd probably talk it over. Without a face, she couldn't tell what kind of thoughts were rattling around in his mind. Tomahawk just kept staring out onto the island. She scooted over to it and tried to talk casually with it.

"When you were alive, did you ever highlight your hair?"

[What?] it asked, clearly taken back.

"You had blond hair," Beth explained. "It was hereditary, right? That's why Meek has it."

Tomahawk nodded as it seemed to catch on.

[Yeah. It was.]

"I was thinking maybe he got it from his grandfather," Beth continued as to not seem suspicious, "but it's probably from you."

From what Beth knew, Connor's "disease" was genetic but this seemed to be suggesting otherwise. But what of Hidane, the man who claimed to know Connor from his childhood and had the same abilities? And what about her, Nathan, Snake, Shroud Demon or anyone Connor associated himself with? Snake had a fiery temper, but she didn't recall him ever exploding into flames. So why were these people feeling this way after Connor and his friend only had a short visit? Unless...

Beth made her way over to Aithne. She had grown to like the woman, even admired her. She seemed to have it all, power, knowledge and a wardrobe that didn't make Beth gag. She figured their time together would be altogether enjoyable.

"That was a pretty impressive ship you had there, Aithne," she said with a tinge of wonder. "I had no idea people could travel underwater aside from Fishman and those weird bubble contraptions I keep hearing about. I guess life always has surprises."

She looked back out at the island. A puzzled look came over her face.

"So how does this Fire Not Happy Disease spread? Do we have to take any precautions?"

---

Tomahawk meanwhile decided to stay by Finnegan and Camellia. It seemed not to want to associate itself with Snake and Shroud Demon for events in their kitchen earlier that day. It sat down rather dully and stared directly at them without any visible emotion.

[Did you come here because you needed something in Seven Gates?] it asked. It seemed to try and act like it was speaking to Finnegan specifically in case the truth of Camellia still meant to be kept a secret.

[Sprite]

Snake raised an eyebrow as a folder from Kaede seemed to be all that was needed to get them out of their cell. With a sigh, Snake stood up and dusting himself off, walked out.

---

The Ravunyan Prince scratched Luis' head, glad to be reunited with his oldest friend. The Anaconda whip was in half-whip form, laying in coils around Snake's back and shoulders, in full whip form it would simple been too-large and heavy for even the warrior nobility to hold aloft on his shoulders for an extended amount of time.

The two partners stared at the oddity that was the island, a giant hourglass, apparently falling apart, with fires raging all about the bottom half. Snake sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

"Never an easy day with the Andersons."

Looking to Kaede, Snake inquired of her, "So do you know where exactly we're supposed to go to find what we need?"

[Kyubey]

Finnegan and Camellia were both very relieved to finally be able to leave the blockade, having been there far longer than any of the others have. Camellia in particular was excited, and was rather frustrated that she had to keep much of her enthusiasm under wraps around the droll Marine officials, lest she be discovered. Still, going to an island meant the possibility of having an adventure, so she couldn't help a little bit of childlike joy. A cloud of steam seemed to follow Finnegan around, flowing out of the cup and right into his line of vision, leading the man to almost slip a couple of times.

New places were always something incredible for Camellia. Every location to explore made her happy, no matter where it was, and this strange, hourglass-shaped land was not at all an exception. She wondered what would happen to them on this newest adventure, for it was, in fact, an adventure. Would anything fun happen? Finnegan didn't much care for excitements, but Camellia never cared much about this. As long as the Marines never found out about her, they would be just fine. Already she had met some friendly and intriguing people. She hoped she would be able to stick around with them a bit more, and maybe become friends. Except that Althne woman. She may have helped Camellia and Finnegan get out of prison, but she wasn't nice about it at all.

---

As the dinghy approached the island, Camellia still kept herself hidden in the teacup. She would have to remain like this until they reached the island proper. It was a pain, but it was nothing she wasn't used to. She didn't stop herself, however, from peeking her head out for a brief second to catch a glimpse of the unusual hourglass shape. She lingered a bit longer than normal, amazed and wide-eyed at the impossible shape of the island.

"Miss!" Finnegan whispered sharply. Camellia jumped and sank back into the tea.

"What?" she whispered back, "They already know about me anyway, that mean woman said so! Why do I even have to stay hidden in the first place?"

"Because you simply must."

[Did you come here because you needed something in Seven Gates?]

Another cloud of steam would then envelop the small part of the dinghy occupied by Finnegan, Camellia, and Tomahawk. This robot that wasn't a robot but is a cook that's really a brain with some sort of mysterious tragic story was more or less the most interesting thing Camellia had ever encountered, and the fact that it showed an interest in her was even better.

"Well, sorta!" she whispered to Tomahawk, "We're looking for something!"

"Miss, I do not think it's wise to tell everything to these people." He then looked to Tomahawk and spoke in a normal tone. "Please, do not concern yourself with our issues. It's just something silly, really, nothing for you to worry about."

"Oh come now, Finnegan, these guys have been nothing but nice! We'll never make friends if ya keep acting like that, ya know. We can trust them. Can't we, Mr. Robot?

Finnegan sighed, knowing that speaking reasonably with Camellia would be impossible.

"If ya wanna know the truth, we're trying to find my parents! They went missing a long time ago, and we've been looking everywhere for them ever since. We haven't had any sign of them yet, though. This island looks pretty crazy. I really hope they're here. Oh, don't tell anyone, though. Finnegan wants to keep it a secret, even if it would be so much easier if it wasn't."

"Yes, so please, I would be grateful if you were to stay quiet about our business. You have your own things to do and all. We can trust you, correct?"

[Shark a' Pult]

"Mean woman. Heh, I'll remember that one the next time I'm gettin' you out of trouble again."

Without looking away from the direction she was steering in, Aithne expressed her opinion on the matter of the tea girl. It was nice to know that her help hadn't been appreciated, so that she could know later not to make the same mistake.

"That was a pretty impressive ship you had there, Aithne, I had no idea people could travel underwater aside from Fishman and those weird bubble contraptions I keep hearing about. I guess life always has surprises."

"Well, there's at least one person who can travel underwater aside from fishmen. It wasn't easy though, I can tell you that much. You wonder why I've got that marine officer under me command, you'll know why."

She was glad someone was at least impressed by her vessel, and it had indeed been very difficult to obtain it. Nowadays each of them had one, but she still remembered exactly the day she had gotten hers. Any idiot could open holes in space or time and step through them, but it took a special kind of resolve to reject the surface of the world altogether and traverse the depths.

"So how does this Fire Not Happy Disease spread? Do we have to take any precautions?"

"I'm sorry... I make it my business to always know what is goin' on, but about the sickness, I honestly don't know. One of the reasons why I'm not goin' with you. All I know is, one of those outsiders brought in carried it, and that now there are all different kinds. Fire sickness is the most common, but it's not the only kind."

Aithne lowered her gaze when asked of the disease afflicting Colyne. Despite the blockade and her interest in the island, she had not dared to set foot on it. Not after what she had heard about it and what she had seen. These people had been here before, or at least they knew more about it than she did, but she wasn't about to walk into a quarantine after them.

---

"So do you know where exactly we're supposed to go to find what we need?"

"...huh? Oh you're talking to me?"

Kaede as seemed usual, was busy rummaging through her bag. She didn't like the sight of the island and the state it was in, and she was making some general preparations for whatever might come their way. All this talk of a quarantine and sickness, and she had her surgical mask affixed and goggles on. As such her speech was a little muffled, although she didn't seem to have any hesitation in speaking with Snake or bear him any animosity.

"Er... not really. I've never been here before, and I have no idea what it's like, beyond what I've heard and can see. I was just supposed to help the Andersons get here, and here they are. At this point, I'd defer to the person who has actually been here before and, hopefully remembers their way around." At this, she reached for the two ends of her staff sitting on either side of her with the blades sticking out, and brought them together to form the single bladeless staff with a click. "I'm not going anywhere until I've seen this whole thing through though, and I'll help out however I can."

Hanging her staff behind her neck and across her shoulders, she looked up at the ever-looming island getting closer by the second, such that now the moon was obscured and they were fully in the shadow of the hourglass formation.

---

When finally they got close enough, Aithne found that they were not actually able to touch down on the island itself. They were only about a hundred feet from what could be deemed the start of the island, and they could clearly see the start of the buildings on the island beginning to protrude upwards and outwards towards them. For reasons unknown, just as the island itself was slanted in parts like an hourglass, the buildings did not extend straight upwards, but instead straight out as though gravity drew towards the conical earth on which they were built. Indeed, if they looked out towards what could be assumed to be the beginning of the actual land of the island, water from the ocean was actually flowing up onto it and further on all the way up the island it looked like. Where they were, near the bottom half cone of the island, although buildings were built straight outwards from the diagonally shrinking landmass it did not look too strange if such a thing could be said. The upper half cone of the island that was inverted however hung above them, and the same could not be said for it. The buildings up there, still powered and visible were built straight out from the conical landmass just like the lower half. Only since the upper cone was inverted on top of the bottom so that the tips met, that meant that all the buildings on the top half all extended outwards and downwards, looking like the whole upper half of the island was completely upside down.

That could be considered later though, for at the moment as aforementioned, they could not directly reach the bottom of the island even. Before they could reach the water running up onto the island, there seemed to be a barrier of shipping containers surrounding the island. Just floating in the water, some sunk even, they were all crowded around the bottom half and extended around it for at least a hundred feet in every direction. If someone cared to look, they would be able to tell that the containers either housed or had housed relief aid from various organizations that had been sent to Colyne in it's time of crisis. However clearly they had never made it all the way and now just floated around it, all bumping into one another and forming a semi-floating unstable landmass of sorts about the base. The reason for this it seemed, was that like the ocean water, they too were being drawn towards the islands own gravity, but unlike the water the metal shipping containers were far too heavy to merely be pulled up the base and further up the island. So there they sat, just bobbing around, and producing the continual sound of metal hitting metal as they all surrounded one another. If anyone had the guts to try it they could probably, easily just walk across them, hopping between one another when the occasional gap was too big. Of note that some were open and had been flooded by the ocean water so they wouldn't be able to support as much weight on top, but though they would probably sink, it wouldn't be too sudden or dangerous and a person could just jump to another.

---

Aithne pulled alongside the closest floating shipping container, and even went as far as to press her foot against it. This one had not been opened and so floated just fine.

"Well it looks like this is as far as I go. You all can continue from here, and do what you need to do. I'll be waitin', watchin', and if you need a pickup just come back here and I'll be around."

As she said this she looked up at the ominously unlit lower half of the island extending upwards away from her. Being this close it was hard to see the lit upper half of the island, as big as it was, because the myriad of tall buildings on the lower half were all pitch black and obscured any sort of skywards view. The only thing that made it not seem like some huge dark ceiling above them, were the many large fires visibly raging through the streets and giving the place an eerie glow all over.

"Good luck. And remember, if you can't handle... whatever it is that's wrong with this place, I'll still be here to get you. I didn't come all the way here just toss you to the wind, so don't worry about a way out."

Kaede meanwhile was as ready as anyone, and stood up, ready to disembark. Secretly she was afraid of this place and whatever had gone wrong, but it would be a lie to say she wasn't also greatly intrigued to find out just what had gone wrong, and even excited to see what lie in store for them.

"So then, probably a bit late to be asking, but what's the plan?"

[CJ]

Tomahawk's face plate fogged up when Camellia let out some steam. It watched silently as the two bickered about whether or not they should answer it.

[Yeah, you can trust me,] it said with a tilt of its head. [Robots don't tell lies from what I know. I don't think they can.]

It was the closest thing it said that could be called a joke. Its head popped back up when Camellia talked about her parents. It had no face but the two might have been able to sense some sympathy.



Tomahawk turned its head directly toward Finnegan.

[Your secret's safe with me. I know how important it is to keep something like this under wraps. Good luck to both of you, today. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you later on.]

---

More diseases? Things seemed worse and worse the more Beth knew about the situation. There had to be something going on there that would explain everything... she hoped.

"Thank you so much for your help, Aithne. It means more than I could possibly tell you. We'll send a signal if we need you to get back."

After a handshake (or smile had Aithne refused her hand), Beth stepped on the first container. Aithne had been their saving grace this past day. She hated keeping details from her but it was the only way they could access the island otherwise.

"Snake, Shroud Demon, please help Finnegan and Camellia if they need assistance," she called back. "I have a feeling these containers aren't going to be the only place where the tea girl can't simply be wheeled around."

When they were far enough away from Aithne, Beth finally answered Kaede.

"I suppose we should go and see if that place Connor was talking about is still operating. Connor, where was that place?"

Tomahawk paused for a while, as though thinking extremely hard about the question. It had been slowly making its way across the containers, as though frightful it might make one sink accidentally, especially the sunken ones.

it began and placed its foot on another container.

"You don't remember leaving? You had to be awake for that part."

[It's fuzzy... Everything looks so different in the dark.]

Tomahawk looked up at the city and stopped where it was. Beth turned back and actually walked back toward it.

"Come on," she said in frustration, "you're just like Ezekiel, zonking out whenever we need you most."

[Ezekiel...? Who's that?]

A look of confusion and dread came over Beth face.

"Are you serious, Connor?" she asked hesitantly.

[My head... hurts...]

Tomahawk fell forward, collapsing on its knee. Beth immediately ran forward and placed on her hand on the robot's head. The others might have caught a glow or glimmer about her fingers. It soon was back in operation and she kept her hand on its arm until it stood back up. She was devastated. From what she knew, Connor couldn't feel anything inside Tomahawk so why would something like this happen?

"Try not to think too hard about things but please give some insight whenever possible."

The robot made a noise like a sigh. Beth felt like she should have been the one sighing. All of the problems they were having seemed directly linked to Connor. She wondered how different this all would be if she hadn't kicked him out of the house that time ago.

"Let's try one of the fires after we get off these containers," she said, pointing ahead. "I think it's obvious we should exercise caution. I don't know how prone you guys are to infection or disease. I think Snake's immune to logic but I'm not sure about anything else and I don't know if that bucket will protect Shroud Demon any bit.

Beth laughed softly at her lame joke.

"We have to find out if there's a place where we can acquire cyborg bodies. Kaede, what do think those would be called?"

[Sprite]

Snake tacked into the wind as their boat traveled towards the giant hourglass island. His green hair trailed behind him in the wind as he listened to Kaede quietly, indeed it was odd seeing as the two did not seem to bear any ill will to each other. At least not until the next time they fought.

It seemed she was just as lost as he was as to what expect.

---

Snake spat into the ocean as he looked over the sea of floating boxes, all abandoned and very suspicious. Seeing Aithne test one of the crates with a foot, the prince was satisfied for a moment as Luis returned to whip form and wrapped himself around Snake's waist.

Walking past everyone else, Snake began traversing across the floating boxes, moving quickly but cautiously, he half expected some giant ravenous sea monster to come roaring out of the ocean to confront him, but it seemed everything was calm for the moment.

Stopping a second he studied one of the boxes floating upright near him, drawing his saber he drew it and aimed to slash the top off the box to get a look at what was inside.

"Any goodies?"

[Kuro]

"Woooowwwwww...That's so cool! It's like something out of the storybooks! I wonder if Captain Skychaser ever went here? I could never have thought of something like this, not in my entire life!"

Shroud Demon looked up at the massive display of coolness, paying more attention to the clean, impressive-looking top-half rather than the lower, burning disaster that was the lower half. He didn't seem very disturbed or affected by the distant fires at all, really. He simply moved his head this way and that in a unrewarding attempt to see more of the structure, as if he could see anything anyway.

When the ship was close enough, Shroud Demon jumped onto the closest shipping container rather quickly and eagerly, and had been ready to jump onto the next one and next and next and next and next until he noticed that Miss Nice Pretty Lady was not tagging along. "Whaaat? You're not coming with us?" Shroud Demon "looked" at Aithne for a few moments, and then put a hand to his chin. "...I guess that makes sense. The quest-giver must stay behind so that when we are done with our journey of heroism and heroics, we know where to come back to for the parades and happy cakes and hugs! Do not worry then, Miss Nice Pretty Lady, quest-giver of the day! We shall return soo-Agh!" Shroud Demon found himself half-submerged in water, his platform lowering by the second. He waded to one end of it and jumped out and onto the next shipping container, turning around to wave at Aithne again. "Bye!"

With that, he went to the others and heard Beth's order. "Very well! I shall protect the princess!" He quickly went to Finnegan's and Camellia's side and struck a fighting pose that involved him standing on one foot and holding his sword high above him. "Let us carry on, Princess Cammy and Mom! Let us go forward and bring this kingdom to peace!"

[Kyubey]

The teacup did not stir anymore, but turned a bright shade of pink, indicating extreme happiness at Tomahawk's remark. It had been a long time since someone besides Finnegan had anything nice to say about her, if they would speak to someone confined to a teacup at all.

"Th-thanks... really."

She really liked robots, she concluded. And, considering how frightening and yet so fascinating the island was, she figured that the group they were with was the perfect band of traveling companions for this little adventure. The best group she could ever have hoped for. Right then and there, she made a decision.

---

"Good luck. And remember, if you can't handle... whatever it is that's wrong with this place, I'll still be here to get you. I didn't come all the way here just toss you to the wind, so don't worry about a way out."

"Okay! Thanks a bunch!" Camellia's head popped out of the liquid, and she waved merrily at Althne.

"Miss! You still need to keep yourself hidden!"

"Bye, lady! I hope we see you again, and next time I won't hide or anything! And by the way, don't say we're not any good. That's just mean. But thanks anyway! See ya!"

Turning away from the mean woman, who turned out to be not all that mean after all, Camellia looked out at the expanse of barrels, and prodded at one with her finger. They seemed sturdy enough, but when one puts their trust in another person to carry them around everywhere, one begins to feel a certain amount of caution towards any new terrain. In her liquid state, solid footing on anything wasn't afforded to her, so any unsteady surfaces were adventures by themselves, though sometimes they could be scary adventures.

"Snake, Shroud Demon, please help Finnegan and Camellia if they need assistance,"

"Oh please, do not bother yourself. I am perfectly capable of moving around." To demonstrate, Finnegan, still holding onto the oversized teacup, sprang from the dinghy with great agility, twirled once in the air, and landed gracefully on one of the containers, with not a drop of tea spilled. If he was a bit more haughty, he might have done a theatrical bow after such a display, but he was simply too much of a gentleman for that.

"See? We can handle ourselves. And you don't have to worry about me getting sick either, by the way. I've taken so many vitamins when I was a kid, I don't think it's possible for me to get infected with anything new anymore, so I'm not too worried about getting sicknesses. I've had enough of those, thank you very much!"

"But of course, we must still always use caution, Miss. Remember that." He spun on his heel, and turned to face his new temporary traveling companions. "Well my friends, I'd like to thank all of you for all that you've done for Ms. Charina and myself. I imagine we'd still be in that dreadful cell if it wasn't for you coming by. We are so very grateful to all of you, but alas, it seems it is time for us to part ways."

"No it's not."

"Miss?"

"Don't act like you didn't hear, Finnegan. I wanna stay with those guys."

"Now now miss. These fine fellows have their own affairs to attend to, as do we, and we certainly don't want to be a bother, not after how kind and patient they've been with us. Best we take our leave before we overstay our welcome."

"But it wouldn't be any trouble at all to stick around with them for a while, would it? I mean, they don't know the area any more than we do. We could help each other out! Come on, I wanna stay with them, even if it's only just for a little while. I mean, who else could we stay with?" She looked back at all her new friends and flashed another mischievous smile. They were all so nice. Tomahawk was so peculiar, and yet incredibly nice. Beth was cool and responsible, while Snake seemed just plain cool, and Shroud Demon never ceased to be funny, and his heroic antics only helped her to feel all the more welcome. "Look, we even have our own bodyguard! There's nothing to worry about at all!"

She pointed towards the hourglass shape, wildly gazing at the island ahead. "Now onwards, everyone! There's exploring to be done!"

Finnegan shrugged, gave an apologetic look to Beth and Connor, and stepped forward with Camellia. It was apparent that he didn't approve, but it was also apparent that his approval meant little when faced against the whims of the little girl in the teacup.

[Shark a' Pult]

"We have to find out if there's a place where we can acquire cyborg bodies. Kaede, what do think those would be called?"

"The Body Shop. Probably."

Kaede was quite concentrated on the shipping containers at the moment, stepping between them and testing the buoyancy before she actually set her weight on them. With her bag slung over her shoulder, things would be very bad if she fell in the water with it, for everyone. It seemed everyone was more concerned about the plague going around, but that was actually surprisingly low on her list of concerns at the moment. If anything she was more worried about them than herself; she had been through quarantines before and knew how to come out alive. If she didn't, well then she wouldn't be here.

She stopped for a bit to watch Snake when he went to cut open one of the smaller floating crates. Unfortunately for him it was filled to the brim with hundreds and hundreds of angry, vicious bees. Having been sealed up in the container for who knows how long, they were intent stinging Snake all over his face and especially around the eyes because they were jerks like that. Kaede of course, had a spray can in case any came near her.

---

Once the group managed to cross the small sea of shipping containers, they would reach the end where the island began. Even from where they were standing and not already on the island yet, they would feel the pull of gravity on them. Not just them even, but everything that close really, and it seemed the ocean around them just sort of joined with the island and began to flow up and away from them all towards the middle of the hourglass formation.

Standing and looking up at the buildings that loomed overhead, Kaede wondered just how they would be getting to the lighted portion of the city (if this place could be called a city), as she assumed any sort of replacements or whatever they would need to get for Connor could not be safely obtained or used in the half of the country that was without power.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I didn't come all this way to turn back now."

Where she was standing, among the closest of the shipping containers, it just floated there bumping into the island as it rose out of the water. Assumedly one could just step off of the shipping containers and onto the slanted ground of the island, and the shift in gravity would just accommodate them and prevent them from falling back down onto the shipping containers and into the water. The only problem was, with the water running up onto the island as well, there was no way to tell how deep it was or how far they would have to walk (or swim even) to reach solid ground. Beyond the initial meeting with the ocean there appeared to be a great expanse of just trash and junk across the ground till eventually it hit the beginning of the city further up, but to get here they would first need to pass this initial patch of water. To test this, she used her staff to sound the water. Much to her surprise, the water wasn't more than a few inches deep. It must have been that there was just so much of it and flowing up from all sides, that there wasn't a need for it to be deep.

And so she stepped up and onto the island, having some trouble adjusting to the shift in gravity, especially since she was one foot on the island and one on a crate. Taking a deep breath she moved her final foot, and with surprising ease found herself fully standing on the slant of the island. It was such that now she was standing, the others in the group were literally both beneath and behind her at the same time, almost like she was standing on a not-exactly vertical wall. Despite this though, she seemed to have no troubles coping with the change and even laughed a little to herself as she turned to look at them.

"You guys have got to try this! Everything looks so weird, even if it doesn't look that wa-"

Promptly she was cut off when it looked like she had been shocked by something and slumped to ground without warning, resting dazed against her bag and sitting in the ankle-deep water as smoke began to trail off her body. The perpetrators would soon make themselves clear, emerging from the rundown buildings that marked the beginning of the city. In terms of perspectives it might have been a bit strange, because for Kaede, since she was already on the island it was like they were walking straight towards her while the people she had come with were standing on the shipping crates a plane apart from her. To the group on the other hand, as with Kaede to them, it would look like the attackers were coming down from above towards them. Of course, actually stepping onto the island as well would correct the perspective differences.

"No outlanders, no room!"

"Turn back now, scavenge from the crates if you will but you're not staying here."

So far it was just the two of them, as they walked towards Kaede, mere silhouettes in the night as one of the vast fires burned away up in the city behind them. Anyone who had exceptional night vision would be able to tell perhaps the strangest thing about the two; despite hailing from a futuristic island apparently, they did not appear dressed as such. Not in the slightest, with mere rags of common clothes that even Shroud Demon would likely recognize let alone the others, as well as just common junk such as trash backs and gutted tin cans to mend the disrepair to their attire. Really, it just looked like someone took some guys from any average place in the world and just dumped them here to scavenge and survive for who knows how long. All they had to life on was what they could find, and this was clearly reflected in how their clothing was maintained.

"Ugh... what the heck was that?"

"Leave what have before leave yourself."

Whether or not anyone had exceptional night vision, they would definitely be able to hear the two speaking, in distinctly foreign accents but wildly dissimilar to even each other. This only further served to prove that these two fellows had merely been plucked from opposite ends of the earth and dumped here. What more, despite their silhouetted forms, anyone wold be able to see the small bolts of what appeared to be electricity leaping off the taller person (and which were sparking off of Kaede at this very moment), while the other seemed to be holding a small fire in his hands that offered a small amount of light on his appearance.